Electronic systems in motor vehicles which are critical to safety are now more and more being equipped with redundant components such as sensors and or computer elements. This increases the operational reliability and availability of the motor vehicle.
Accordingly, a control system for a motor vehicle with two processors is disclosed in published German patent application 3,539,407. Furthermore, measuring devices such as the position transducer of an operator-controlled element or the engine speed transducer are arranged as being redundant in this known system. The signals of the redundantly configured measuring devices are supplied to the two processors, respectively, which carry out the control of the drive power of the motor vehicle on the basis of computer programs which are virtually identical. The output signals of both processors act on the same changeable power-influencing variable of the drive unit of the motor vehicle.
The complete redundancy of such a system contributes however to a considerable increase in complexity and therefore increased costs and also increased occurrences of malfunctions.